Lessons in love and care this Valentine's Day
We’ll be exploring the many feelings, thoughts, and experiences around love – each one different, each one unique, and each one special in its own way.
Fleur Hamilton
What is Valentine's Day about for you?
We actually don't celebrate Valentine's Day. It's the day before my birthday, and we've found it to be more of a hype day for marketing, rather than a day where you truly feel love for someone and want to do something for them.
As a couple, we tend to celebrate our love with date mornings, date nights, random acts and gifts of kindness. So instead of it being an expectation, it comes as a surprise from the heart, rather than from what the ads are telling you to do. ☺️
What do you love about celebrating love?
I love celebrating everything. When we feel truly loved, we fully surrender and allow ourselves to fully feel. Love brings up all emotions, so we get to celebrate, allowing ourselves to feel all of those. Real love brings real, honest conversations where we get to speak our truth and fully be seen. So we get to celebrate saying what we really want, celebrate feeling worthy enough to do that and also let others see us.
Is there a story or someone you'd like to share about?
The story of love for me is important. I didn't allow love for a long time. I pushed it away due to fear of loss and pain. Love for me was scary. It took small steps, building trust over time, finding the worthiness in myself and allowing myself to be fully seen, even the darkest things that lurked over me.
Love always brings up challenges; what you see in yourself, in your partner, your programs and beliefs from your past and your upbringing, and so much of that we have to unlearn in order to learn how we want to show up in love, how we want to show up in ourselves, as parents, etc.
My story of love is learning about loving myself in whatever season of life that is, with whomever I'm surrounded by and whatever I'm doing.
What lessons are you taking forward around love and care?
To appreciate love, to appreciate those who love us. To spend time and make the most of those special moments. To allow love to bring me closer to others and allow me to grow. And to also be okay that other people may not love me as I love myself. ☺️
Monni Jansen
What is Valentine's Day about for you?
Even though we can appreciate and acknowledge the people we love on any day of the year, setting aside a specific day, or consciously making a date to do so, can be a beautiful reminder to pause.
It invites us to stop, reflect, give thanks, and intentionally show appreciation for the person or people we love.
What do you love about celebrating love?
Love, and the acknowledgement of love, is such a beautiful thing. Life is full of challenges, emotions and experiences, and love has a way of softening, grounding, and connecting us.
There's that saying, "where your attention goes, energy flows", and choosing to place our attention on gratitude and love feels like a powerful and meaningful act.
Is there a story or someone you'd like to share about?
There is - my little sister, Courtney.
I remember the moment she was born as if it were yesterday. Mum had her at home, in the shower, and I stayed up with her through the night. When Courtney arrived, it was love at first sight. She had the biggest green eyes, soft golden hair and the sweetest button nose.
I always felt deeply connected to her. Looking back now, I understand it was our shared sensitivity that allowed me to truly see and understand her, perhaps because I needed the same care too. Courtney experienced the world in her own beautiful way. She was drawn to babies and animals, was the best Auntie and a quiet observer with an artist's heart. We both loved creating and making.
Also, while I'm here, I'd like to acknowledge and show appreciation to my partner Doug. Our relationship of nearly a decade has already endured so many seasons; thank you for sharing all the wonderful times with me, enduring the hard times, and growing with me.
What lessons are you taking forward around love and care?
Courtney taught me more about love and care than anyone I know. Through her sensitivity, she showed me how to truly be with others, especially those who feel deeply or move through life differently. She helped me understand that we all exist on a spectrum, each with our own rhythms, challenges and gifts.
She taught me that even the deepest grief can be endured and that grief and love are inseparable - that grief is love revealing itself. She taught me faith, resilience and what love looks like when it is steady, patient and fierce.
Courtney taught me that love transcends distance, space, and time. As each day passes, I love her still, and I always will.
Celine Wallace
What's this Valentine's Day about for you?
For me, Valentine's Day is about coming back to myself and nurturing the relationship I have with myself.
Slowing down, listening to my body, and choosing to care for myself and how I show up, rather than getting overrun by the external pressures of life as a woman in today's busy society.
What do you love about celebrating love?
I love that it allows us to soften and express appreciation, tenderness, and presence. Not just in a romantic sense, but in friendships, family and in the quiet ways we show up for one another.
Is there a story or someone you'd like to share about?
My mum. We haven't had the easiest journey throughout the years, but in the last decade, she's been a constant reminder that love can heal and that when you show up with steady, nurturing, and thoughtful acts of care, you can transform your life and that of another. At 75, she takes our Hormones and Mood capsules every morning, exercises, has a daily sauna and is bouncing around healthier than most 50-year-olds I know. Watching her prioritise health, kindness, and resilience has shaped how I approach both life and Sattva Soul.
What's a lesson you're taking forward around love and care?
That love isn't something you earn or push for; it's something you practice daily through rest, boundaries, nourishment and compassion towards yourself and others.
What's your current favourite in-store product, why, and how do you love using it?
I absolutely adore the Tahi Facial Oil with its foresty notes of Kawakawa, it reminds me of hiking in NZ native bush. I use it every morning with my Gua Sha for a facial massage. It feels like the most luxurious start to the day!
Amber
What's this Valentine's Day about for you?
This year, it appears life is encouraging me to be hopeful about romantic love and to remember that love can hold and dissolve grievances. By tuning into love, some of the heavy burdens I and others carry can be lightened. If there really is the force of love in the world (which there is), I want to be in that vibe and feel it.
What do you love about celebrating love?
I'm a romantic, so I enjoy any opportunity to bring presence, gratitude and appreciation into small moments. I'm happy to have a day that inspires acts of love and beauty. What's more important for me, though, is how we greet and receive each other, speak and care for one another on a daily basis. Those first moments of meeting are so precious and tender to me, as well as the departing. It may be the last time I see that person, so I love real softness and true love shown through eyes, touch, and approach.
Is there a story or someone you'd like to share about?
I'm really missing my cat, Indi, as a tenant & not having a home, a lot of expression and joy is compromised, which can otherwise be taken for granted. One thing amongst many is not being able to have animals around. Animals teach us about love with the most compassionate presence, and I miss my little daemon. I'm always homesick too, so I feel it's important to have grace for myself and each other and also tackle the bigger issues of inequality and discrimination that mitigate opportunities to create a happy & wholesome life for family and communities…particularly women who haven't partnered or women who are in a destructive relationship but for financial reasons can't afford to get out of a toxic and damaging situation. I really want this to change for the betterment of everyone.
What's a lesson you're taking forward around love and care?
When I reflect back on my life, I wish I had been more considerate of the needs of others, like my grandparents and my parents, and really given them what they wanted, so they knew how much I loved and cared, rather than wanting or trying to have so much of my needs met. My friend and mentor Jonathan Evatt says At the moment of death, as you consciously review the story just lived, your first 'thought' will be … 'How deeply have I loved?" I think I can really do more of that - love well without needing so much, if anything in return.
I'm also trying to focus on all the good people offer and bring, rather than their shadows, negative and difficult qualities - seeing them as a whole gift, rather than compartmentalising them and being reactive to these parts. In this way my gaze is softened to see their beauty and perfection and wholeness in this moment - not what they're doing or who they may become "if only"….and listen to the intention behind the words and caring less about the words and more about the feeling, energy, truth and authenticity I'm receiving…words are only a very small part of our communication. I'm trying to free up my high expectations around exquisite communication and listen to the other layers.
What's your current favourite in-store product, why, and how do you love using it?
My Hyoumankind Go Silk Pillow - this product is a dream, literally. I can't believe I had 43 years without one!
Hannah
What's this Valentine's Day about for you?
Valentine's Day, to me, is a day to embrace love. However, love is something that should be implemented into our everyday lives in small, meaningful ways. Love comes in many forms. Whether it's the love of a life partner, the love for your children, or the bond between sisters, love takes many shapes. For some, it's a feeling. For others, it's something you do. Perhaps this is a time to reflect and a time to learn a little more about love, and the many ways it can be given and received.
What do you love about celebrating love?
To me, celebrating love is a warm hug — a gentle embrace that wraps you in comfort and reminds you that you're held and supported. To others, love may look and feel different, and that's okay.
What's a lesson you're taking forward around love and care?
I hope Valentine's Day becomes not just a day to remember, but a gentle check-in on how love can be woven into the fabric of everyday life. To meet and honour not only your needs but the desires of the ones you love, too.
In writing this, I realise it means more to me that Valentine's becomes a small ritual: a moment to check in with my loved ones.
Our lives can be filled with chaos, ups and downs, and distractions — and that's why I feel this small piece of advice matters so much.
Mark
When you take your heart out of the equation, the idea of love at first sight sounds ridiculous. How could anyone possibly know they love someone without ever speaking to them? No context, no history, no data. Only an idiot would believe that.
And yet—when I put my heart back into the equation, it turns out I'm the idiot.
I have this three-second video in my head that has played on repeat for more than twenty-five years. It's the first moment I saw her. She tilts her head back and laughs. That's it. Nothing dramatic. Nothing cinematic. And yet, in that instant, I knew. I can't explain how or why. It wasn't a thought; it was a certainty. It made no logical sense, which only made it more unsettling. I consider myself a rational person—analytical, structured, not prone to impulsive decisions. I majored in mathematics and economics, for heaven's sake. But none of that mattered. I just knew.
The image is as sharp today as it was then. The date was 3 December 1999.
That was the beginning of the story. The problem, of course, was what came next: how do you get someone you've never met to want to get to know you? Luckily, fate decided to intervene. Not subtly, either. Fate didn't offer a fleeting moment or a near miss. It offered two full meals and more than ten hours together.
I first saw her boarding my flight from London to San Francisco. And then—because apparently the universe has a sense of humour—fate sat us next to each other. On a 350-seat plane. Yes, I know how that sounds. Later, I convinced her I'd bribed the gate agent. "Best 20 quid I ever spent," I told her. The truth is far less impressive. I wasn't nearly that quick or bold. I was still contemplating wandering the aisles and "accidentally" bumping into her, a plan so bad even fate stepped in to stop me.
From that day forward, fate and my heart conspired to steamroll my logical, analytical mind. They taught me something I hadn't learned from equations or models or probabilities: love is not a rational process. It doesn't follow rules or care about credentials. It simply arrives, unannounced, and dares you to deny it.
Every Valentine's Day since has been special—but so has every ordinary day. And for that, I'm grateful. Grateful to my heart. Grateful to fate. And grateful that, just once, logic lost the argument.
Carol
Valentine's Day for me is about celebrating love in every magnificent form.
💘 I personally embrace celebrating love, as energetically it's the most powerful vibration there is. Embodying ourselves within this highest frequency promotes healing, well-being and positive energy.
💘 I searched and waited many years before meeting my husband at the ripe young age of forty-four! Beforehand, I had many boyfriends and a fiancé, but I always felt something was missing. I once read about the 'split in two' soulmate story from ancient Greek mythology. Philosopher Plato described the union of two halves as a single soul, and how we all search for our 'other half'. When I met my husband, this rang so true for me, as I finally felt 'whole'. I realised he was the missing half I had been longing, aching and searching for — literally for decades!
💘 The lesson is to never give up — not only on finding love, but on trying to live in love and light every day.
💘💖 Happy Valentine's Day